D.J.'s Big day

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- After IU's loss to No. 7 Duke on Nov. 28, IU coach Kelvin Sampson said D.J. White, his talented but demure forward who had scored just seven points in the close loss, needed to develop a "swagger."\n"You gotta bust open them bar doors and walk in and say, 'Who wants a piece of me?'" Sampson said on Dec. 1. "You know what that is? That's an attitude."\nRupp Arena isn't exactly the local saloon, but White flung its doors open Saturday all the same.\nHis career-high-tying 23 points, nine rebounds and four blocks weren't enough to salvage the Hoosiers' shooting woes Saturday, as IU (5-3) lost at Rupp, 59-54. But even in the loss, the 6-foot-9 forward seemed to have taken another step toward becoming a consistent, game-changing post presence -- the kind Sampson can rely on all season.\nOn a day when IU shot 30.6 percent from the field and 16 percent from the three-point line, White was the exception, not the rule. He made 10 of his 19 attempts. With many of his buckets coming from short layups or post turnarounds, White was the player IU fans have been hoping for: steady, solid -- sometimes even dominant -- in the post.\nThe forward was matched up with Kentucky's cornerstone center, Randolph Morris. White had his most success in the first half, notching 15 of his 23 points.\n"Randolph and I have been going at each other since high school," White said of the Kentucky big man. "So we had a feel for each other coming into the game. We went out there and competed like we always do."\nIn the second half, Kentucky brought a double team nearly every time White touched the ball in the post, and the forward had some trouble adjusting. And when White was able to find an open Hoosier shooter on the perimeter, the shots didn't fall.\nThat double team prevented Sampson from utilizing White when the Hoosiers were down 57-54 in the closing minute. Sampson designed a play to get IU guard Rod Wilmont an open three-point look, which Wilmont passed on, instead of pounding the ball into the post.\n"We knew they were going to guard D.J. and that they were going to double," Sampson said. "D.J. wasn't going to get a shot -- they were going to send at least two or three people. We would like to shoot it -- catch it and shoot it.\n"I have been in enough of these that you know what you want to do -- go down and get a quick two," Sampson said. "But we tried to get twos all day but missed open shots. We ran a misdirection play -- a little refusal, we got the ball to the right person. But we've got to shoot it."\nThose shooting problems held the Hoosiers back from the close loss Saturday. But White said the team had to handle the pressure of the situation -- the environments rowdy fans and arenas create -- better.\n"It was a privilege to play in (both Rupp Arena and Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium)," White said. "But my team, on both ends of the floor, we didn't come out the way we would like to."\nPart of the reason White played 39 minutes and shouldered so much of IU's frontcourt load Saturday was the absence of IU center Ben Allen, who felt sick in the days leading up to the game and was unable to play by Saturday morning.\nSampson said team doctors were checking the sophomore's spleen for signs of mononucleosis.\n"Obviously, when a kid feels sick, he feels a lot worse in the morning than he does mid-day or at night," Sampson said. "And Ben was just awful."\nThe coach made no indication if Allen did in fact have mononucleosis or when he might return to the IU lineup.